The University of Montana women’s basketball team has suffered some devastating injuries over the past two seasons.

On Saturday, the Lady Griz appeared to catch another bad break as up-and-coming freshman Sophia Stiles injured her knee as she attempted a layup in the third quarter of a 53-51 Montana win over North Dakota in Missoula.

The Malta product was back on the bench with a wrap on her knee shortly after the injury, according to SWX Montana, but did not return to the game.

The Lady Griz pulled out the win with the late-game heroics from Hamilton native Taylor Goligoski, who hit the eventual game-winning jumper with 2.2 seconds remaining.

“I think the girls were really fired up after (the injury),” Schweyen said. “Sophia has just been having such a great season so far and hopefully it’s not season ending for her. I think that fired them up and heard them say ‘let’s play hard for Soph,’ and ‘let’s go out and get it done.’ So, it was definitely emotional, definitely inspirational.”

The injury comes after losing standouts Alycia Sims and Kayleigh Valley to knee injuries last season. Valley injured her knee again in practice in October while attempting a comeback.

“We’ve seen enough of those,” Schweyen said in a release. “It’s nothing you want to ever get used to, but unfortunately that’s sports.”

Stiles tweeted after the game: “So much love for this team,” in response to her coaches’ sentiments.

Stiles had been enjoying a highly successful rookie season with the Lady Griz, coming within one point of the freshman single-game scoring record last week with 26 points against Southern Utah and had cracked the starting lineup the last three games. In a loss to Northern Colorado on Thursday, Stiles led the Lady Griz with 16 points.

The two-time Montana high school Gatorade Player of the Year has averaged 7.5 points in over 22 minutes per game through 22 games with Montana (12-10 overall, 8-3 Big Sky Conference). The Lady Griz are in a three-way tie with Northern Colorado and Idaho.